Key strategies for managers

Kevin BaldeosinghThere are hundreds of thousands of business books, so everybody is always looking for a new angle to get their book on the bestseller lists. Neuroscience is the newest selling point, used not only for business books but every other topic that has even a tangential relationship to psychology. But pretty much every such book is bogus, in the sense that scientists don’t yet know enough about the brain to extrapolate from brain scans to behaviour in the real world. Jacobs’ book is no exception. Although he claims that “neuroscience also teaches us to be more effective in the world we live and work in”, he also admits that “networks are organised hierarchically” and that “high level networks, such as values and deeply held beliefs, will drive both ideas…